Palghar like incident averted in Gujarat’s Panchmahals

Police said the trio did not suffer any grievous injury and were released on bail. Patil said, "The police had reached before the villagers turned violent. They had slapped the three men and begun attacking them but no body sustained grievous injuries."

Three people were lynched in Palghar , police officials of kasa investigating the spot in the Gadchinchle village. Express photo by DEEPAK JOSHI 17 April 2020, Thane,Maharashtra

Even as the outrage over the Palghar mob lynching is yet to subside, the Panchmahals police in Gujarat averted a similar incident in the tribal areas of the district on Monday. Police said that a group of villagers from Bhamaiya village in Godhra Taluka was booked for ‘assaulting’ three men travelling in a pick up vehicle on the suspicion of being ‘thieves’.

With viral messages warning of “thieves” arriving in most of the tribal villages in the area, the three persons were stopped on the intervening night of Monday at Bhamaiya village. The men, all residents of Dahod district, were on their way to purchase cattle feed from Kheda, they said in the FIR registered with the Godhra taluka police.

When the vehicle reached Bhamaiya, villagers armed with sticks stopped them for questioning. Police said that the group of villagers were apprehended in quick time after the news reached the patrol team of the area. The men, in their FIR, have stated that they were beaten with sticks and have sustained injuries on their head before the police arrived.

Panchmahals Superintendent of Police Leena Patil told The Indian Express, “The patrol team reached the spot in Bhamaiya village at once and stopped the incident from taking an untoward turn. We have booked four villagers for assault under section 323 of the IPC among others. We have also booked the three men travelling in the vehicle for violating lockdown under Section 188 of the IPC as well as the Epidemic Act. This is because they did have permission for transportation from the Dahod district administration but for another vehicle and not the one that they were travelling in.”

Police said the trio did not suffer any grievous injury and were released on bail. Patil said, “The police had reached before the villagers turned violent. They had slapped the three men and begun attacking them but no body sustained grievous injuries.”

Patil said that the district police has already begun a campaign to create awareness against vigilantes taking law into their hands against suspected thieves.